CHARACTERIZATION OF BSP73, A SPONTANEOUS RAT-TUMOR AND ITS INVIVO SELECTED VARIANTS SHOWING DIFFERENT METASTASIZING CAPACITIES

  • 1 January 1983
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 3  (2) , 109-123
Abstract
BSp73 arose spontaneously (1979) as intraperitoneal nodules together with ascites. Histologically, th enodules were classified as adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. During serial transplantation of ascites cells to a subcutaneous site, 2 variants appeared-one fast-growing, nonmetastasizing, the other slowly growing and metastasizing via the lymphatic system to the lung. From the in vivo selected variants and from the parental tumor, 2 types of tissue cultured cell lines were established. These differed in morphology, adherence to plastic, susceptibility to detachment by trypsin, and, above all, in the ability to metastasize upon reinjection into syngeneic recipients. From differences in growth kinetics in vivo it has to be concluded that variant cell types coexisted in the parental tumor in the form of precursors, which adopted their characteristic features (irreversibly) after a shift in the environment.